MSI has put up a news item announcing support for Intel's 9000 series CPUs on their Z370 motherboards. The announcement has, in the meantime, been promptly pulled, for whatever reason. Alongside the announcement for MSI's Z370 motherboards being "Optimized for Intel 9000 processors", the company released a list of 15 motherboard models in its lineup that sport the Z370 chipset which will receive BIOS updates to bring them up to speed, support-wise, with Intel's 9000 series.

Of course, there's a small hitch here: the wording in the promotional image isn't quite clear-cut in regards to exactly up to which core counts will actually be supported. The promo image speaks of "next-gen six-core CPU support", which may mean that only up to six-core, i5-tier Intel 9000 series CPUs will be supported, with the 8-core, 16-thread i9 lineup being a premium, Z390-only product. That would certainly play into Intel's usual way of doing things - they do have to justify the introduction of a new chipset, anyway. We'll have to wait and see - likely for some time, if the latest Intel roadmaps are any indication.

The MSI boards listed probably only support the 9000 series 6 cores because their VRM is shit on the Z370. Wait for probably better VRMs on the Z390s. Most of the original Z370 boards were rushed anyway.

Gasaraki said:The MSI boards listed probably only support the 9000 series 6 cores because their VRM is shit on the Z370. Wait for probably better VRMs on the Z390s. Most of the original Z370 boards were rushed anyway.

Z370 VRMs are that bad? Doubt it. Rocking a 8700k on a Gaming M5 5ghz 0 problem... Simply put, people now care too much about VRM when they will never need as much power as they think. Is one of those weird and non sense bandwagons. I can even assure you can use a 8700 on a B360/H370 and even some H310 boards without any issue or risk. But you guys can keep overreacting to VRMs quality, is on every damn new motherboard reports comment section nowadays.

Manu_PT said:Z370 VRMs are that bad? Doubt it. Rocking a 8700k on a Gaming M5 5ghz 0 problem... Simply put, people now care too much about VRM when they will never need as much power as they think. Is one of those weird and non sense bandwagons. I can even assure you can use a 8700 on a B360/H370 and even some H310 boards without any issue or risk. But you guys can keep overreacting to VRMs quality, is on every damn new motherboard reports comment section nowadays.

There are reasons why there is concern. 1) VRM that tries to support higher core counts/clock speed will struggle more. (One of the reasons why Z370 even exists when some Z270 boards with working firmware could run Coffee Lake CPU's, but Intel wants you to keep sidegrading every year)
2) Due to heat, the VRM becomes less efficient as it gets hotter.
3) Due to heat you are reducing the lifespan of the board (not a problem if you're upgrading every few years, but I do like a well preserved board to get 2nd hand)

The MSI Gaming M5 if one of the better boards, similar boards from other manufacturers can have a different kind of VRM setup, for better or worse. The boards themselves can have a lower VRM count, but then they have to make sure the heatsink is good enough if you try running something overclocked as voltage increases exponentially and so does the heat. That extra heat can have a lot of impact on builds with smaller cases, impeded airflow or almost no airflow due to no intake/exaust for the VRM area. Sometimes a manufacturer decides to put a stupid plastic shroud over the VRM which increases the temperatures.

Example, the rated speed at which my RAM runs is 3200MHz, guess what there's so much heat coming off-of the VRM it affects overclocking ability, and I have to dial back clock speed and voltage just to get the system stable again. Even if the VRM is not hitting 100c (which isn't the worse case scenario) 60-90+ Celsius degrees is enough to affect the rest of your components, particularly in worse scenarios as I mentioned above this paragraph.

As a consumer I don't like that I am getting less for my money than I did a while ago. A $120+ board with 3+1/3+2/4+1/4+2 phase configurations and a crappy heatsink on them is not acceptable in my book. But look manufacturers don't care, they get caught lying about how many phases they have and try to justify it by the amount of FETs and inductors, they're calling a 3+2-phase motherboard a 6-phase and people are buying them expecting the boards to be good. If they're not wired to a proper controller or at least have doubling, that extra crap is almost useless. Sure, better voltage control and doubling schemes add to cost, but that's what I expect at that price point and we're no longer getting it.

Not my business how you run your system, it is troubling to me when I cannot run my system how I want it when they're selling less for more money. It's not the first time and won't be the last.

MSI right now is keeping out of the BS. But Asus, Gigabyte and AsRock are cutting costs on boards recently by messing with VRM's.

I've bought Supermicro the last couple of times, so nothing to complain about hardware wise.. but I'm still jealous of those above companies because they're prettier and have a much easier to use software package and BIOS :p

StrayKAT said:I've bought Supermicro the last couple of times, so nothing to complain about hardware wise.. but I'm still jealous of those above companies because they're prettier and have a much easier to use software package and BIOS :p

Yeah, there's some sort of compromise somewhere. EVGA would be almost like having a Supermicro board with decent software and BIOS. But EVGA made like 2 Intel boards and that's it, but they are good. I want an AM4 board from them.

This is the board I used to have for my Phenom II 1605T: https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/M5A99X_EVO/13.html - It was almost perfect.
Almost nobody makes boards like this anymore, especially for the price point. VRM's capable of 275W, and look at that heatsink! Unseen of today in mainstream platforms. THIS is a motherboard. It's almost like with audio, we used to be able to buy really expensive audio gear, but it was worth every penny because it was good, now audio gear costs more while having lesser quality.

Keep buying overpriced stuff and manufacturers make sure to continue down this path, don't buy and they discontinue products or at least stop support for them... These tactics of theirs drive me up the wall. I think there are no honest companies left on this earth, sad.